


Shuffling Along

by EmiliaRabbit



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Gen, Nebula Needs a Hug, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-08 18:00:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15248829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmiliaRabbit/pseuds/EmiliaRabbit
Summary: After The Snap, she's with him, Flying in the middle of nowhere, and he hates how easy it is to get attached.Or, Tony now has a daughter from space who he loves very much, thank you.





	Shuffling Along

**Author's Note:**

> In my defense, this was written at 3 AM. Someone teach me pacing.

 Nebula was as beautiful as her namesake, made of unearthly dust, and eyes darker than a starless night.

 

 (He lost ~~Pete~~ the kid and she was there and she was with him and she was as broken as he was-)

 

 It took longer than it should have to get off that miserable planet, silence their only comfort. They didn't need to communicate with real words. Real words  ~~~~were ~~forthedead~~ limited to simple things, like "My arm," which she only whispered after he fixed the ship with disturbing ease. Or, "Who was she?" during Nebula's sharp, angry rant which gained him a very detailed explanation of her horribly shitty childhood and even more so shitty father.

 

 They took the journey slow, like they had all the time in the world. It wasn't as if Thanos was coming after them. 

 

 Tony didn't want to see what was waiting for him at the end of the rainbow. He didn't want to see a broken Earth  ~~that he couldn't save.~~

 

 Nebula didn't seem to know what to do with herself, entirely. Her goal was _plain_ , killing Thanos was about as plain as it got, but the woman walked like her strings had been cut, the marionettist no longer taking the lead and giving her free reign. But you didn't give a puppet free reign for the first time and expect it to know what it wanted. Gamora ~~died~~  became only a memory of love. The essential piece was missing.

 

 (She told him once that her original plan had been to kill Gamora and Thanos, and that she had no After planned. Her sister then became her After, when they reconciled. Hope was a bitch to know once it was taken from you.)

 

Tony told her, as he fitted her arm and tried to take away lingering hurts, that he would help her. He promised her he'd help see Thanos dead at her feet.

 

"He has all the stones, you'll die. It's an impossible task. "

 

He shrugged and said. "We've done six impossible things before breakfast, what's one more?" Because references that aliens didn't understand were fun.

 

 He cleaned his stab wound while she watched, with detached fascination. She did that when he meddled with her arm, too. Tony didn't understand why. He could read the emotions and the person, but he didn't always get what he was looking at. Too many probabilities, not enough data. Data required getting to know someone. Knowing someone meant getting attached. Which inevitably led to their suffering, death, and betrayal. Sometimes all three at once. An apalling mistake and he made it every single time. He was doing it again, fuck.

 

Nebula found him during his first breakdown on the ship, a pensive look and twitchy limbs, which meant she wanted to reach out, but suffered the age old 'How do you do Physical Affection' problem. Yet more proof that her dad was a dick.

 

 Did aliens get panic attacks? She stared at him like he was dying. It felt like he was, and that's definitely a bad sign, or a good sign, a sign he's still alive enough to feel like he was dying.

 

 "What's happening?" She looked over him carefully, but never touched him. They were all about that, touching with consent. Shit, that didn't sound the way he wanted it to.

 

 "Just some anxiety," Tony wheezed, and clutched at his chest as he fell because in the end all the pain  ~~shrapnel~~ ~~p~~ ~~oisonwormhole **The** **Shield**~~ came from there. Nebula kneeled in front of him, waiting for a better answer.

 

 "So, real dumb Earth thing, when humans have too many-" His entire body shuddered, throat tight, "-bad days, months, years. They panic, at the worst times. Not fun, but not dying either."

 

 She tilted her head. He tried not to think about how her name was space and that they were in space. "What do I do to stop it?" Nebula murmured.

 

 Good question. "Need to ride it out. No moving, no thinking, just breathing," Not the best way to fix the problem, but Tony never learned how to control, only to live with it.

 

 Nebula nodded. "I will be here."

 

 So they stayed like that, him on the ground not quite laying down, and Nebula crossing her legs and looking a bit lost but determined to wait for him to be fully present. They pressed themselves against the wall of a half functioning ship made for a family that currently laid in ashes. They let the silence of a mourning universe circle the little niche created out of grief and fire and mechanical rage, but never let the universe crawl in to join, because sometimes you were allowed to feel horrible and not share it with everyone else. And when Tony could finally breathe again, they didn't talk about it, just like they didn't talk about what they were planning, or if they were going to part ways when they reached Earth.

 

 (She could handle anxiety attacks. She didn't pass judgement or probe or attempt to deal with things beyond what she knew. He couldn't think on that for too long, though, because then he would remember Harley, and then he remembered Earth, and then he knew Harley could be  ~~ **dead**~~ gone or his mother could be gone and that would leave Harley and his little sister  ** ~~to die~~** ~~~~alone in a horrible twist of fate.)

 

(His  ~~~~family wasn't dead, he wasn't going to come home to a house filled with ash. He refused to accept that, even if he had to bend all of time to do it.)

 

Earth eventually came into sight, and eventually they had to land, so he took them to the Compound. He let Nebula put his arm around her shoulders, and leaned only the barest amount to prevent himself from relying on her more than necessary. She scowled slightly when she noticed, but made no comment.

 

It was only until he heard shouting that he realized people were heading towards them, out of his home, which was unusual and something he would have to ask about later. Assholes better not have destroyed something important, like his lab, or his bots. 

 

" _Tony-_ " Oh, Steve, right. Where did he come from? Where did they _all_ come from? The Avengers stopped being a thing a while ago, so why was Bruce, Natasha, Thor, and Clint even... Since when was everyone all buddy-buddy  _at his compound?_  

 

It might have been the injury, because focusing on the figures rushing to them at top speeds became a tad hard to do. Just a smidgen. Nebula however could see them all clearly enough and tensed underneath his arm.

 

"Are they safe?" The tone was urgent and low, her grip tightened ever so slightly. He knew she wouldn't let him out of her grasp until she had his word, but it suddenly became harder to breathe. Tony let his head fall and began counting to ten because having an attack at this point in time was not recommended. The Avengers were now only a few feet away. Nebula shifted and took a step back, her eyes stony. Steve reached out, only to find her not forthcoming with his former teammate, which raised an issue with everybody in the vicinity.

 

"Who are you?" Clint sounded hostile.

 

"What happened?" That was directed at Tony, concerned and fearful and many other things. Bruce seemed so tired.

 

"Give him to me, please." Steve had steel in his voice, but if Tony breathed well enough to actually think about shit, he detected an edge of panic. 

 

Nebula was still waiting for him to calm down and give her a proper answer. "No,"

 

"He needs medical attention," Was Natasha talking to the Avengers or to them? "He needs to come with us."

 

His chest was starting to uncoil, finally. Breathing stable, not in excessive pain, and nothing was screwing with his head. All good, just peachy. "Nebs-"

 

Her eyes fixed to him for a moment, but Steve chose that moment to make a move for Tony. Except apparently that involved an attempt at pulling Nebula's arms away, which, fuck that. In an instant, there was a gauntlet formed in front of them both and aimed straight at Steve.

 

"Don't touch her." He didn't snarl, or snap, like he wanted to. A rasp more like. A scratchy, serrated tone that brimmed with weakness and underlying terror. Everyone heard it, he saw it on their faces. Tony hated how Steve softened, or how Natasha's flickering glance was suddenly calculating something unknown. He just wanted to sleep off all this bullshit.

 

"Nebs, its safe."

 

She relaxed an iota, but he stayed in her arms as Thor led them into the Compound, and that was perfectly fine.

 

~~better her than her ashes.~~

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> 3 AM me wrote a second chapter, so I'll be finishing that. This makes me anxious. It all makes me anxious.


End file.
